Zero Hour
by Colonel Arbuckle
Summary: In honor of the Air Force birthday today, Garfield goes flying.


**Zero Hour**

The year is 2018. The place is Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Here we find the 19th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron's B-52 Stratofortresses on nuclear alert ready to strike if communist Russia launches nuclear weapons at America or her allies. The commander of the 19th EBS is Lt. Col. Garfield Arbuckle. Col. Arbuckle has been in the Air Force for seven years and has risen quickly through the ranks.

At this moment at Ramstein, 1400 hours local time on the 4th of October 2018, Col. Arbuckle is observing the completion of scheduled maintenance to his airplane, christened the _God and Country,_ when his electronic warfare officer walks up.

"Sir, there's a phone call in your office for you from the commander of Global Strike Command," Captain Arlene Arbuckle states.

"From GSC?" questions Garfield, "That's unusual. What does he want?"

"He wouldn't say," Arlene says, "But he said it was urgent."

Five minutes later, Garfield and Arlene walk into the squadron commander's office, where they find the rest of the crew of the _God and Country_: Maj. Snoopy Brown, co-pilot, 1st. Lt. Charlie Brown, navigator, and 2nd Lt. Jon Arbuckle, radar navigator. They all listen in as Garfield picks up the receiver.

"Yes, sir, Lt. Col. Arbuckle speaking…Is it a what? Yes, sir, this is a secure line…Well, they just finished maintenance on mine and all the others are flightworthy…They did? Well, why did…" Garfield's face suddenly turns pale and he swallows deeply. "Yes, sir, I'll inform you when we're airborne. God bless sir, goodbye."

"What was that all about?" asks Snoopy.

Garfield swallows deeply again and says, "They just set the Doomsday Clock to midnight. Russia and Iran have just launched nuclear-armed bombers and ICBMs towards Israel and China and North Korea have just done the same to the United States. Our orders are to obliterate Moscow."

The crew looks on in shock as Garfield walks over to the duty desk and turns on the intercom. "Your attention please, this is Lt. Col. Arbuckle speaking. All alert aircrew are to proceed immediately to your planes and arm your bombs. Our target is Moscow. This is not a drill. All alert aircrew proceed to your planes and arm your bombs. This is not a drill."

It is now 1430 hours local time and the _God and Country_ is circling above Ramstein at flight level 300. Garfield has just signed off with the GSC commander. "Now we go Winchester to talk to the squadron," he mutters to himself as he adjusts the radio knob. "All bombers on this frequency, this is _God and Country_. Get into formation on a heading of 070 and set throttles to max cruise speed. Our target is the Kremlin in Moscow. There are seven seperate surface-to-air missile sites defending the Kremlin alone so EWOs keep an eye on your radar screens for possible launches. Now, I won't kid you about the danger. Half of us probably won't get out of this alive. I wish you all the best. It has been an honor to fly with you. Godspeed everyone."

It is now 1645 hours Ramstein time. The squadron is over Moscow.

"Jon, I'm turning the autopilot over to you, you may begin the bomb run," Garfield says.

"Roger that," says Jon as he begins to enter information into the computer.

"Colonel, I'm picking up a missile launch at two o'clock five miles out," says Arlene, "It's picked us up and is coming after us; ETA 30 seconds."

"Deploy countermeasures," says Garfield.

"Deploying countermeasures."

The SAM screams by and explodes behind the formation. It is closely followed by a second and third. Soon the sky is filled with exploding SAMs. Bombers are shot out of the sky one after another. The formation presses on.

"Jon, how much longer?" Garfield asks nervously.

"Should only be another 45 seconds," Jon replies.

"We may not be here in 45 seconds!" Garfield responds.

"Colonel, we just lost countermeasures!" Arlene screams

"Understood," says Garfield grimly.

"Bombs away!" Jon shouts as a nuclear armed warhead plummets from the three bombers still airborne. The bombs explode. Moscow is no more.

Suddenly Arlene shouts, "Colonel, there's a SAM heading straight for us! Pull up! Pull up!"

A deafening explosion rocks the plane. Engines One and Two burst into flames. _God and Country_ plummets from the sky.

"Snoopy, shut down Engines One and Two! I need to concentrate on pulling us out of this dive!" Garfield yells. He turns to face Snoopy and Arlene but find them unconscious. He tries contacting Jon and Charlie on the lower deck but gets no response.

"No!" he yells, "No! Nooooo!"

Suddenly Garfield wakes up with a start. Jon is shaking him, obviously trying to wake him up.

"Garfield, wake up! Wake up! You were having a bad dream," Jon tells him.

Garfield looks around. He is in his bed in Jon's house in Muncie, Indiana. His faithful teddy bear Pooky is at his side. All is right with the world.

"I knew I shouldn't have had that 15th pepperoni pizza before bed," he mutters to himself as he settles back down to sleep.


End file.
